The Old Schoolhouse Spiffed Up Classroom Contest

*UPDATE*
We won the contest! Thanks to The Old Schoolhouse magazine for all their effort that went into making this contest happen and to the sponsors who donated the prizes! Thanks to everyone who voted for us...we enjoyed everyone's kind and generous comments!

Saturday
September 19, 2009


I am soooooo EXITED to be one of five finalists with some other very creative people in The Old Schoolhouse Spiffed Up Classroom contest on facebook. We truly feel blessed to have an unused room in our house that we transformed into Meara's classroom. Thanks to ALL of you who voted for me so far!!! ;-)

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
Each photo has been tagged with the name of the semifinalist. Please go back and look at all of the photos belonging to each semifinalist before you decide on your favorite. I have only included one photo from each person here. To vote, choose your f...avorite schoolroom and click the "like" button below the photo. On Sunday at midnight EST, we will tally the votes and award the winner with a $100 gift card for the Container Store.

Our Learning Room

Tuesday
September 1, 2009

This is our "learning room". I LOVE that someone else called their room that so we have adopted that term. We have two stuffed handmade planets and a HUGE space shuttle hanging from the ceiling. The hutch we inherited has made accommodating storage space for us. We also turned our bookcases on their sides to make everything more accessible for our kindgergartner. I think it's really important to have at least one real piece of art, we chose a piece my cousin painted to give us inspiration(it reminds us of home).

I found this chain with hooks at a yard sale. I thought it would be perfect for hanging our puppets. We are using an old microwave cart for storage also. It's great for storing the water tub and toys where Meara can easily take them out and put them away with little assistance. We also have our FAVORITE thing sitting on top...my old record player and records from when I was her age.

Our art display area (piece of burlap rope tied to the banister) and storage. The basket houses our musical insturments and the green and yellow containers hold our legos.

Our morning routine wall with the reminder of love...our family tree with everyone's handprints.

A BIG thanks to our Public Library!

August 2008

This is our dining room that we have converted into a classroom for Meara. We are so LUCKY to have gotten some great 3D paper stuffed items from our public library. Over the summer they have an awesome reading program. This year they had a large stuffed space shuttle and a couple of planets hanging from the ceiling. After the program was over they offered the items to anyone who wanted them. Thankfully, I have a sweet husband who helped me gently stuff them into our Escape and take them home to be proudly hung in the classroom. A big thanks to the ladies in the children's library who have made our classroom a little more exciting!

This calendar was a Dollar Tree find that we had lamenated at the local teacher's store.